Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

Budget issues dominate the health policy conversation this week. Health policy impacts everyone, but it can be hard to know what is important. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Budget To Propose Saving Hundreds Of Billions By Cutting Drug Prices, Fraud President Biden’s budget blueprint will lay out plans to save hundreds of billions of dollars by seeking to lower drug prices, raising some business taxes, cracking down on fraud and cutting spending he sees as wasteful, according to White House officials. Mr. Biden is set to release his fiscal 2024 budget plan on Thursday. Administration officials said it would propose cutting federal budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. The proposal is unlikely to gain momentum, with Republicans expected to oppose many of Mr. Biden’s plans, and it will include some ideas that didn’t become law while Democrats controlled the House and Senate. But the release of the budget will kick off months long spending negotiations with lawmakers. (Restuccia, Rubin and Armour, 3/8)

The New York Times: Biden Budget Will Propose Tax Increase To Boost Medicare President Biden, as part of his budget set for release on Thursday, will propose raising a tax on Americans earning more than $400,000 as part of a series of efforts to extend the solvency of Medicare by a quarter-century. The president will also propose expanding that tax, which helps fund health care programs, to cover a wider swath of income, including some earnings by business owners that currently are not subject to it, White House officials said in a fact sheet released on Tuesday morning. Mr. Biden will also seek to broaden a measure, passed last year entirely with Democratic votes, that allows Medicare to negotiate the price of certain prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies, which is projected to save the government money. (Tankersley and Sanger-Katz, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Covid Backlash Hobbles Public Health And Future Pandemic Response When the next pandemic sweeps the United States, health officials in Ohio won’t be able to shutter businesses or schools, even if they become epicenters of outbreaks. Nor will they be empowered to force Ohioans who have been exposed to go into quarantine. State officials in North Dakota are barred from directing people to wear masks to slow the spread. Not even the president can force federal agencies to issue vaccination or testing mandates to thwart its march. Conservative and libertarian forces have defanged much of the nation’s public health system through legislation and litigation as the world staggers into the fourth year of covid. (Weber and Achenbach, 3/8)

For a Deeper Dive...

The New York Times: Biden’s $6.8 Trillion Budget Proposes New Social Programs And Higher Taxes President Biden on Thursday proposed a $6.8 trillion budget that sought to increase spending on the military and a wide range of new social programs while also reducing future budget deficits, defying Republican calls to scale back government and reasserting his economic vision before an expected re-election campaign. The budget contains some $5 trillion in proposed tax increases on high earners and corporations over a decade, much of which would offset new spending programs aimed at the middle class and the poor. It seeks to reduce budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion over that time, compared with the country’s current path. (Tankersley, 3/9)

Stat: Biden Requests $20B Cash Infusion To Bolster Public Health The Biden administration is calling for a big boost for public health funding across the federal health department, but left out specific funding for Covid-19 activities. In its budget request to Congress on Thursday, the White House asked for $20 billion over five years to support pandemic preparedness efforts at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. The request aligns with the White House’s National Biodefense Plan. (Cohrs, 3/9)

The Hill: White House Budget Leans Into Drug Pricing, ObamaCare Expansion President Biden’s budget proposal focuses heavily on expanding access to health care and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. In an effort to extend the life of Medicare’s hospital trust fund, the budget proposal would increase the number of drugs that can be negotiated, and allow those negotiations to begin sooner. (Weixel, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden’s Budget Shows The Rising Cost Of Leaving Medicare And Social Security Untouched When President Biden accused some Republicans during his State of the Union address last month of wanting to sunset the country’s two big elderly entitlement programs, GOP legislators booed. Mr. Biden responded: “Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They’re not to be touched? All right. We’ve got unanimity.” The price of that unanimity becomes starkly clear in Mr. Biden’s budget, released Thursday. As promised, it doesn’t cut either program’s benefits. As a result, their cost continues to ratchet steadily higher. By 2033, they consume 10.5% of gross domestic product, up 2.7 percentage points from last year. (Ip, 3/9)

Axios: Biden Budget May Be A Preview Of Campaign's Health Platform President Biden's fiscal 2024 health budget contains few bombshells. But it's a useful guide to what he sees as accomplishments to build on — and likely previews key parts of a prospective 2024 campaign platform. With a divided Congress and little chance of major legislation, Biden's best bet may be drawing contrasts with Republicans on pocketbook issues like drug costs and to portray the GOP as intent on cutting voters' health care and retirement benefits. (Bettelheim, 3/10)

Fierce Healthcare: Physicians Are Twice As Likely As The General Population To Attempt Suicide, Medscape Survey Finds Nearly a quarter of physicians reported clinical depression in a new Medscape survey, while 9% admitted to suicidal thoughts, and 1% shared that they attempted to end their lives. Medscape surveyed 9,100 physicians across 29 specialties last year. While physicians often address the suicide crisis throughout the U.S., many are struggling with their own mental health. Two-thirds of doctors reported colloquial depression, according to the survey. (Burky, 3/3)

Stat: Why Doctors Leave Clinical Medicine To Work For Insurers Gastroenterologist Alin Botoman had been on hold for almost an hour. The drone of muzak taunted him on speaker phone. It was the second day in a row he’d spent trying to get insurance to cover a dual CT/PET scan he’d already performed for his patient with esophageal cancer. The day before, after the insurance company unexpectedly denied the request, he’d called to contest the decision and spent an hour on hold. (Pasricha, 3/8)

For the Visual Among Us...

A few years ago I started a weekly e-mail for friends and colleagues who want to keep up on major federal health policy developments but did not have time to plod through all the minutiae--they were busy doing important things like running organizations and taking care of patients! Much to my surprise, it became pretty popular. I have now converted to a weekly newsletter format so you can manage your own subscription preferences and forward to others that might be interested.

These summaries represent my judgement on health policy issues that may not on the front pages, but are relevant to clinicians, administrators, and educators. I monitor many news sources and clipping services to identify content for this newsletter and I try hard to be as factual, balanced, and non-partisan as possible. While the articles are written by others (with credit attributed), the choice of what to include is entirely mine. If you are interested in receiving a daily summary of health policy news, you might consider signing up for the KHN Morning Briefing. If you enjoy podcasts, I suggest What the Health?

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD